Tip of the Iceberg

(Cross-posted at Greatechxpectations)  The iPad is a great mobile device for recording students thinking on the go. When we combine the iPad, Harvard’s Artful Thinking Palette, Harvard’s Visible Thinking Routines and the free Voicethread app, a plethora of possibilities become available. Sign in to Voicethread (NB, if your school has domain, as ours does, you [...]

This is the third year Margot and I have worked on a claymation project with the Grade 5s, and we both feel this is the year that everything is coming together! I have written about our adventures with animation here and here, so you can see a bit of the history. This year, we are [...]

I know Learner Profile Certificates aren’t the be-all and end-all of the PYP, however if your school is anything like my school, teachers like them anyway. And let’s face it – so do kids. A teacher on staff made some gorgeous certificates, however they were all with copyright images, so Louise & I made up [...]

If you’re anything like me, you will recall the hype surrounding Google Wave, and you will remember with excitement, the day your invite finally arrived. I felt a bit like the cat that got the cream when I got mine, however my Wave potential was limited by the number of geeks people I could interact [...]

Every now and then I think it’s character building to step outside your comfort zone and try something you wouldn’t normally try. That’s what I kept telling myself – repeatedly – having made the decision to take on Stop-Motion Animation. Luckily for me, people who have far more patience than I were on hand to [...]

This tweet from @pluke17 got me thinking… He shared a link to this photo of his son Declan’s art work: I thought it was a pretty amazing drawing, and I was equally impressed that this 11-year-old had found something he wanted to learn and knew exactly where to find the information that would help him. [...]

Waaaay back in November I had the pleasure of joining the fabulous Paul Langtree to deliver a workshop on Collaborative Planning in the PYP at Seisen International School in Tokyo. I feel it was the best workshop I’ve done to date – the staff were fantastic, open-minded and enthusiastic, and Paul was so great to [...]

Man have I been looking forward to this! My first chance at getting into classes with the iPod Touches. My expectations were certainly exceeded and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Full disclosure: I have never taught K2 before. In fact, I’ve never taught kids younger than Grade 2, so thankfully I [...]

I tried backchannel chat for the first time during keynote addresses at the EARCOS Teachers Conference: ETC09. What is Backchannel Chat? It’s like note-taking at a lecture, but notes are shared with anyone who has the URL. They might be people in the room with you, but they could also be anywhere in the world. [...]

A big welcome to all our new PYP colleagues in Singapore! Lovely to have you visit our East campus. Below is a Voicethread we started to help us look at practical ways we can reinforce the PYP Attitudes in the classroom. Some of our teachers have already added information about how they use the attitudes [...]